[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] my trip to Poznan and Volhynia

[Carol Duff]

    In September I traveled to Poznan and Volhynia to research my grandmother and her family. I had fantastic success at the Pila and Poznan archives and then on to Volhnyia in the Ukraine.
     I began with a day at the archive in Poznan which gave me some direction.
     After that, for 3 days, I and a research assistant, sat in the archives in Pila. At the end of the day, we had a table piled more than 3 feet hight with vital record books. My helper knew exactly which books to order. She and I went through these books for family names, recording the names as quickly as we each were able to record. I found many records of my family . I really need another week there but also need Ewa,  for I would never have found even a fraction of what we did without her help. Imagine my surprise to also find  Paul Rakow signed in to research at Pila just a few names before mine. 
      Before I left home, I found the Volhynian records of my Schumann family with Ludwig Schumann being listed as lehrer on the death records in Boguslawka. He had lived in the Boguslawka area at least since the 1870s and was listed on the death records of 1887, However, a FHC film, I think #238(0034?) has a preview comment on Boguslawka saying that these records were transferred to Stieglitz in 1890. I wonder if Ludwig brought them with him for I see him presenting evidence in Stieglitz for the birth of my grandmother's sister in 1889?
     After the archives closed, we drove to family places of Buchholz (AKA Bukowo), Eichfier (AKA Wolowe Lasy), Stieglitz (AKA Siedlisko), and Dolfußbruch (Aka Przleg)
    We stayed at Smolarnia outside of Trzcianka during this time.	
    Following this, I flew to L'viv where Victor took me on the next leg of my research. He succeeded in showing me Boguslawka, where my great-grandparents lived for eight years., in spite of the fact that it no longer exists except for the holes which were once basements and the marked off area of what was once a cemetery where three of my grandmother's siblings were buried in 1887. I also saw the church in Rozhishche ((Rozyszceze), Volyn, Ukraine where my great-grandparents were married in 1880. It is in great disrepair now and had been divided once into two floors by a wool manufacturing business but was no longer in use. However, it was unlocked for us to explore.
	We stayed in Lutsk, while researching the area and saw the former German Lutheran Church which had been rebuilt to this period of time after the war and now housed a Baptist congregation. While Victor did not know the location of the Volhynia land records archives, he was successful in learning about history from local inhabitants and in finding the former German Lutheran Churches in the area as well as the former location of Boguslawka.
	I had thought that my ancestors were farmers, as the brother of my great-grandmother brought oxen and farm equipment on the ship he took to Canada. However, to my surprise, I found them living for both locations in the middle of a forest. The guide comment, in talking to local inhabitants, thinks they were making pressed wool, perhaps for Russian winter military uniforms.
	Accommodations in both countries were arranged by Ancestral Attic as well as arranging for my guides- assistants in each location. They tended to want me to visit Polish historical locations, but my guides in both location adapted my schedule to how I wanted to spend my time.